Orissa

Bhadrak, Odisha: Hanging from the ceiling of the one-room mud hut that is Dayamanti Biswal’s home are two baskets fashioned out of rope. During the annual floods that sweep this corner of eastern In...

New Delhi: Among the 11 nations with 70% of the world’s burden of malaria, only India has managed to reduce its disease burden, registering a 24% decrease between 2016 and 2017, according to the Wor...

Highlights* Government has set target of full sanitation in rural India by 2022 under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan. * Country-wide utilisation of sanitation funds only 20% in the first half of the current financial year. * Only 16% schools in India have functional toilets. Jairam Ramesh, India’s Union Minister For Rural Development, caused a … Continued

Highlights * Marginal increase in women enrolments. * Bihar sees highest increase in women enrolments. * Kerala also sees high dropout rates. Women constitute 48% of Indian population as per 2011 census but make up only 6 million of the 14 million students (42%) enrolled in higher education. IndiaSpend’s Sourjya Bhowmick … Continued

The bad news; Only 25% of the target set for solar power generation has been met in Phase 1 of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, which ends next year, i.e. 2013. India needs to do more if it wants to harness solar power. The interesting news: one state, Rajasthan, has commissioned and undertaken … Continued

Most planners and economy watchers would argue for greater and faster urbanisation. Many, however, would not be aware of the largely dismal condition of state and urban local body finances which could potentially support the great shift. Moreover, as IndiaSpend’s Prachi Salve finds out, effectively, only 5 states in India have the financial and administrative … Continued

A major grid power failure in India’s Northern Grid late Sunday (July 29, 2012) night affected at least 7 states badly. This in turn crippled services across the region, including the Railways. IndiaSpend’s Sourjya Bhowmick does a quick demand-supply report and finds that other regions of India, notably, the South, face similar peaking power gaps. … Continued

Not that it might be a burning concern at this point but do you know which Indian states could lead the spending sweepstakes in tackling climate change and diminishing forest cover? IndiaSpend’s Danielle Collaco filed a Right To Information (RTI) with the Ministry of Environment & Forests to find that Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh & … Continued

India’s ‘poverty rate’ has been debated ad infinitum ever since Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of India’s Planning Commission announced the fixing of the poverty line at Rs 26 per day for rural areas and Rs 32 per day for urban areas. Those behind the uproar argued that these limits were too low. IndiaSpend’s … Continued

Bihar has been reporting astounding economic growth numbers, 13.1% at last count. More pertinently, there is a palpable sense of change and optimism about the future. But where has this growth come from? Does Bihar really beat the other big states now? More importantly, what has economic growth delivered for Bihar? To try and … Continued